Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Like the debate over climate change itself, the debate over climate economics looks very different from the inside than it often does in popular media. The casual reader might have the impression that there are real doubts about whether emissions can be reduced without inflicting severe damage on the economy. In fact, once you filter out the noise generated by special-interest groups, you discover that there is widespread agreement among environmental economists that a market-based program to deal with the threat of climate change — one that limits carbon emissions by putting a price on them — can achieve large results at modest, though not trivial, cost. There is, however, much less agreement on how fast we should move, whether major conservation efforts should start almost immediately or be gradually increased over the course of many decades.

Fucking Hell. No I'm not swearing; "Fucking" is the name of a village in Austria, and "hell" is a kind of ale. A German company just trademarked the name, to the annoyance of the village, which doesn't want more publicity because it already has a problem with people stealing its signs (as do the German towns of Kissing, Petting, and Pissen).